Echo Park – Page 97 – Lori Whitlock

Sizzix Woodland Animal Party with Lori Whitlock Dies

May 14, 2016May 14, 2016

Hello everyone! Angi from Twenty Five Smiles here with a fun party idea. This one would be perfect for both boys and girls. And since it’s a “woodland theme” you could host this party indoors or out. I used Lori’s adorable dies from Sizzix for this one. And I also used some of her patterned paper that she designed for Echo Park. Let’s get this party started!

Here are some close up shots of my little party! I just love the Sizzix Bigz Die Owl. It’s so adorable. I added some of the Petticoats and Pinstripes patterned paper to the wings. I also used the Framelits coordinating dies and stamps to make the cupcake toppers.

The Sizzix Bigz Die Fox is another adorable part of the party. I added more of the patterned paper and used the enamel dots for the eyes and nose.

Be sure to add more fun sentiments to some juice bottles.

The kiddos would love seeing them on their drinks.

I hope you enjoyed my fun little party idea today. Be sure to check out Lori’s Sizzix dies, they’re a lot of fun to work with!

Sizzix Dies and Stamps Used:

Book Box Tutorial with Kathy

May 12, 2016May 9, 2016

Hi Everyone, it’s Kathy today with a tutorial showing how to assemble Lori’s new Book Boxes. These boxes are so cute and come in three different sizes! I used the Small Book Box as a gift card holder for my daughter’s English Teacher… he has been so helpful, writing college recommendations, helping to edit essays and providing much morale support, she wanted to make sure he knew how much he is appreciated!

I started by cutting the pieces out using Lori’s Pinstripes Collection for Echo Park. For the book “cover” you want to run it along the edge of your desk or table to curve the spine area. The same for the spine cover (blue).

The first assembly step is to glue together the main box piece, making sure the tabs are inside the box.

Next, I added the “pages” strips to the side and the bottom of the box. Be aware, the bottom page piece is supposed to stick out a bit further then the box bottom.

Next I added the decorative panels to the book cover.

I then added the spine cover, making sure to line up the outside score lines.

*** A quick note on the last two steps… I did it in the incorrect order… You want to add the spine piece first, then cover with the cover pieces, but mine was already glued… it still looks great, but goes to show, even the “experts” make mistakes!!

The next step is to add the cover to the box. You want to line the edges of the open end of the box up with the outside score lines on the spine of the cover.

I found it easier to do one side at a time.

All that’s left is to add the outside embellishments! I used some gold sticker paper I had in my stash to make the corner protectors.

I used the stickers from the Pinstripes collection to write a Thank You “title” on the spine.

That’s it for me today, thanks for stopping by to peek!

May Off the Page Challenge with Kathy

May 7, 2016April 30, 2016

I can’t believe it’s already May! It’s time for the May Off the Page Challenge over in the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook Group! This month’s challenge is all about Flowers! We want to see all of your paper projects featuring flowers. You can also add in Mother’s Day and Teacher Appreciation gifts projects as well! Of course we would love you to use Lori Whitlock files! For my project, I used the fun files from the May Kit of the Month take a peek…

These just make me happy! The would be so cute for a Mother’s Day gift or for that special teacher or friend. Here are some close-ups! I used some papers from Echo Park’s Hello Summer collection, they are so bright and cheery!

Be sure to play along with this challenge by posting your project in the May Challenges Album in the Paper Issues Friends and Fans Facebook Group in the comments under this project. Each project posted will give you an entry to win a $10 Gift Card to the Paper Issues Store! You have until June 6th to enter! I can’t wait to see what you create!

Using Digital Brushes and Stamps with Rachael

May 6, 2016May 5, 2016

Hello, all! Rachael here today, to show you how to use brushes and stamps on your digital layout. I will be demonstrating this technique in Photoshop CC, but the principles are the same in Photoshop Elements. Let’s go ahead and get started, shall we?

For this layout, I used a solid yellow paper as the background. Solid papers are a great starting point for adding brushwork.

The first step is to create a blank layer for your brush strokes:

Next, you’ll want to activate the brush tool. In Photoshop, this tool looks like a paintbrush and can be activated by using the hotkey (B) on your keyboard. Once the tool is activated, you could go ahead and use the default brushes. However, we are going to use some of Lori Whitlock’s very cool brushes in this layout. To load additional brushes, click the drop-down arrow next to the currently active brush:

The brushes window will open, displaying all available brushes in the current brush set. Click the gear icon in this window to load new brushes:

The next window gives you a series of options. You can either Reset the brushes, which replaces the brush set with the default brushes; Load brushes, which appends the brushes in the new brush set to the existing brushes; or Replace brushes, which replaces all loaded brushes with the ones in the brush set you select. There are, of course, numerous additional options within the menu, which you can explore and experiment with as you see fit. For now, go ahead and select the “Load Brushes” option.

Navigate to the folder that contains the brush set you wish to use, and double-click to load the brushes.

To view the brushes in the brush set, click the drop-down arrow next to the current brush (refer to the second step, above). This menu displays a thumbnail icon for each brush in the brush set. Select the brush you wish to use, and set your foreground color.

Go ahead and place your curser, which should now be in the shape of your brush, in the location you desire.

Since you’ve placed the brush stroke on its own layer, you can move the brush around and rotate or manipulate it as needed, just as you would any other design element. You can also change the blending mode of the brush layer, to get different results. For this next brush stroke, I stamped in black and then changed the blending mode to Overlay and reduced the opacity to 40%:

Digital brushes and stamps are a fun and easy way to add complexity and depth to your layout. Feel free to play around with the options and find what works best for you.

I hope this inspires you to try something new!

The following products were used in this layout:

Echo Park (designed by Lori Whitlock): For the Record Collection

Flourish Brushes

Everyday Stamps

Everyday Stamps 2

Four Compartment Cookie Box Tutorial with Tya

May 5, 2016May 5, 2016

Hi Everybody! It’s Tya Smith here with a tutorial on how to assemble the new Four Compartment Cookie Box that Lori recently came out with. I love her boxes and this box was just what I needed to take a yummy treat to my Mom for her birthday.Let me show you the steps it takes to put this box together.

Open up the file. It is found here on the Silhouette and here on the LW SVG Shop.

Now, it may look like a lot of pieces – but this really is quite easy to cut out and put together. The tan pieces are for the box base and lid and the aqua pieces are the pattern papers for the lid and sides of the box.

I went ahead and cut out all the box pieces out of kraft cardstock.

Then I started assembling the pieces. I took the 2 square pieces and layed them on top of one another. This is the box base.

Next take the 4 box pieces and fold on all the scored lines. Add adhesive as shown and glue the box together.

Add 2 of the boxes to one end. Then add the handle piece as shown.

Now add the other 2 box pieces.

Add the pattern papers to the 4 rectangle pieces. These will be glued all along the edges of the box.

Now put together the lid. Add the pattern paper to the top and edges.

Here’s the box all put together.

I added some yummy cupcakes to the boxes, but you could add cookies, candy or other small gifts.

To finish off the box I cut out a tag from the 5 Hang Tags cut file. I added some pretty ribbons and some stickers and other embellishments from Lori’s Petticoats Line for Echo Park Paper. So pretty and feminine.